Friday, May 2, 2008

Why do public transit systems collect fares from the passengers? In most cases, the direct cost of collecting the fare is almost as much as the fare. If you add in the indirect costs, collecting fares costs more than not collecting fares. So why do it? Simple. To discourage use of public transit.

4 comments:

I agree with your first point. If you analyze where the mass transit fares and tolls end up, the money largely goes to maintaining the fare collection sytem itself - employee salaries and benefits, infrastructure, etc. It is essentialy a government jobs program.

That said, I don't believe that the government administrators are consciously trying to discourage the use of public transit. The cost of collecting the fare is completely unrelated to an individual's ability to pay that fare. Plus these government administrators don't seem that clever.

In any event, fares and tolls should be used for infrastructure maintenance and expansion, not employing government workers, in my opinion.

From my experience in DC and NYC, a good number of commuters realize that a large percentage of their fares and tolls are not used for maintenance and expansion. On our site, we try to capture a lot of the anger and frustration that daily commuters feel day in and day out because of the failures of government agencies to refurbish and expand mass transit.

That's amazing that they still try to collect fares. We have free public transportation in Steamboat Springs, CO and it's so easy to get around without a car. That as well as established bike and walking paths. As gas prices go up, any alternative to driving is a good alternative.

Free is Cheaper

How is free transit cheaper? Don't you have to make up for lost fare revenue? The answer is that your city will save so much money in other areas, and quality of life will improve so much that you will get back much more than the lost fares. Some examples are listed below. If you want to see specific numbers, see our spreadsheet here.

Increased return on investment. Public transit involves large fixed costs. When fares are gone, there are more riders per vehicle, getting more value from the investment.

Reduced parking costs. With free transit, fewer people will park downtown. City parking authorities can cost $180 million a year, paid by fines, which are just a tax on customers and delivery services.

Reduced traffic congestion. Studies have shown that the time lost in traffic costs urban economies hundreds of millions of dollars.

Less money exported for gasoline. A medium sized city can export 1 million dollars a day in gasoline money for cars. Free buses will reduce this considerably.

Better quality of life, priceless. In Hasselt, Belgium, when fares were removed, people in hospital started receiving more visitors.

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85% of all transportation costs in the U.S. are related to private automobiles. [more]